Last week, my personal listserve sent out an automatic e-mail that I programmed more than two years ago saying that if all went well, I would be returning from the Peace Corps in mid-August. Oops. Guess I forgot to remove that message.
It is, however, remarkable at how much has taken place in the past two years. I’ve lived in three states (NC, CT, IN); visited a few new countries (Japan, Thailand); saved someone’s life; built several dozen web sites; bought an Audi; bought my first home (a condo); returned to work for my fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha); a made many new friends. Much of this wouldn’t have happened if I remained in the Peace Corps.
I’m not saying that I’m glad my Peace Corps service lasted only three months. I’m just saying that my list would have been drastically different.
My three months in the Peace Corps, however, remains a very sustainable three months. Everything that I posted on my site two years ago still remains. It not only remains, but two of the top 10 most-visited pages of my site are regarding the Peace Corps: my close of service and the list of other volunteers who had personal web sites telling their Peace Corps stories. In fact, these two pages (out of 165) account for 7.5 percent of my site’s traffic.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, we were trained to make sure that our work and service could be sustained after we left. Organizations we served were not to become dependent on the Peace Corps to provide free labor year after year. Our projects and work was supposed to continue long after we left. I left two years ago and people are still interested in my story.
I know what I am saying, I am so glad that my Peace Corps service ended after 6 months (3 training, 3 waiting). My ET lead to an amazing job in-country and then the freedom to travel around the world and back again, twice now: https://www.bbwindow.com
Three cheers to PC ET!!